Health Promotion Behaviors among African American Women

by Douchand Brown, Sandra Elaine

Abstract (Summary)

The purpose of this research was to examine and describe the relationships among health status, marital status, income level, education level, age, and body mass index (BMI) with the added influence of spirituality on the health promotion behaviors of African American women, living in South Florida. The sample consisted of 137 women, 18 to 64 years of age, who were born in the United States and whose parents were born in the United States. Each participant completed a demographic questionnaire, the Health-Promoting Lifestyle Profile II (HPLP II), the Short Form36 Health survey (SF-36), and the Spiritual Well-Being Scale (SWBS). Descriptive and inferential statistics with an alpha level of .05 were used for data analysis. Statistically significant findings were (1) a positive relationship between health promotion behaviors and formal education, (2) a positive relationship between health promotion behaviors and spirituality (existential well-being), and (3) a negative relationship between health promotion behaviors and number of children. In the regression model, the five sets of variables together accounted for 25.5% of the variance in overall health promotion behaviors of African American women F (15, 121) = 2.768, p < .01. The health promotion behaviors of African American women were not significantly affected by health status, marital status or BMI. Of the five demographic variables entered in the model, only number of children and education made statistically significant, unique contributions to health promotion behaviors. A sense of life satisfaction and purpose (existential well-being) made an additional, statistically significant, unique contribution to health promotion behaviors among African American women. The unique contribution of religious well-being was trivial. Therefore, formal education, number of children, and spirituality (existential well-being) may be used as predictors of health promotion behaviors among African American women, based on the results of this study. Culturally appropriate and relevant interventions used to encourage and educate African American women to increase physical activity, and decrease caloric intake are critical to mitigate the high rate of morbidity and mortality that African American women experience from CVD.